Yes, we want this guy and his idiot super-Christian moron in office. If there is nyone out there who thinks this is acceptable, then please post below and provide specifice detail on why we need a short fuse attached to an atom bomb in office.

Being an atheist, I don’t have a god or gods to turn to for comfort or to understand the world. What I do have to those ends are the things that occupy my mind for most of my conscious life: ethics, morals, and people. Of course there are other things, pets, good beer, good coffee, etc., but those are the biggies, the ones that define my life and how I interact with others lives.

So, you might accurately say that I make a study of the ethics and morals in other people’s interactions. I have no idea what Sen. Obama thinks of Sen. McCain outside of policy points. That’s a good thing, because it means that Obama treats McCain with respect and has the restraint to keep his emotions from becoming a problem in public. Sen. McCain, on the other hand, constantly gives off little indicators of the rage ins disdain that he keeps bottled inside him. From closing his eyes to contain himself while Obama is talking, to the two examples below, McCain gives the impression of an angry and disrespectful man.

The first is an example of McCain dehumanizing Obama by calling him “that one”. Even his grin to the crowd seems like he’s baring his teeth, not to mention his unhidden sarcasm:

Next, we have an example of McCain refusing to shake Obama’s hand after the debate.

The little back pat that he gives Obama is demeaning and not the show of respect an equal deserves. Is this the kind of man that we can trust to meet with leaders of other countries, especially ones he doesn’t agree with? I think not.

I don’t think conservatives are bad people. Certain conservatives, like certain liberals, frighten me with the prospect of them having any hand in running our nation. John McCain, with his sarcasm, anger, and lack of respect, is one of them.

(h/t to TPM, which is good when they’re not giving their opinion, for the videos)

I just got done watching the VP debate, and as expected, Palin played up the folksy, down-home angle. I think this will play well with the Republicans who have been nervous about McCain’s running mate pick. This is idiotic! I don’t want my next-door neighbor running this country. My next-door neighbors are morons, just like me.

I don’t want my President to be a guy I can imagine having a beer with. I want my President to have such a command of home and foreign policy that he would be talking over my head on almost every issue. I want the President to understand running a country in ways that are far beyond my ken. I want a professor, not a drinking buddy.

Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennet are described by the media as alternately the New Atheists or the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. All four men have written books that challenge religion, ranging from imploring theists to simply rationally consider their beliefs to flat-out mocking the stupidity of belief in a sky fiend that is unprovable and obviously doesn’t act in a way that is consistent with their belief system (hence, the old cop-out “God works in mysterious ways”).

These four are not the only atheists to write books lately, but they certainly are the ones that get the most press. It’s not difficult to understand why: each of these authors has risen in the face of years of treating religion with kids gloves and directly called attention to the irrationality of unchallenged beliefs. Reactions to this new brazen charge, including the rise in media attention to atheism, incorporated opposing reactions. On the positive side, many non-theists saw these books and the resulting media attention as a positive step in not only coming out of the atheist closet, but also more strongly asserting their belief systems. On the negative side, many (including a fair share of atheists) felt that the confrontational language of the books was too strong and served to widen the social gap between theists and non-theists.

It’s not difficult to acknowledge the conflict that the publication of these books has stirred up, but we would be remiss in dismissing the books of the Four Horsemen based solely on this fact. For you atheists and theists who think these books are distateful because of their confrontational and blunt nature and see it as a dividing line between the two groups, that may be. However, it wasn’t the point of them to narrow the divide. Some have described the books as evangelical, attempts to make theists see the light. That seems more likely, but I don’t think that was really it, either.

What I see these books doing is bringing atheists out of the closet, which is no mean feat. They are letting atheists know that we have a reason to be proud of our realistic view of the world, that we’re no bad because of it, and there’s damn good reason to see the world as we do. Use of humor, reasonable argument, and meaninful prose, each book tells us atheists that we are right to think as we do, and there’s no reason to let other make you feel bad for it. They instill a sense of pride for a human condition that has vastly been seen as a nasty to an even monstrous belief.

That is why we must not ignore these books or these writers. They may not have acheived a goal that we thought would have been more worthy, but what they did acheive was laudable in and of itself.

PS: This post was written over a few days, so please forgive any inconsisencies!

A 28-year-old Russian woman and a 30-year-old Lebanese man were arrested in Dubai and put on trial. Normally, this is where you’d read that they were smuggling opium, but their crime was far more atrocious than that. They drank juice in public.

Shame! Scandal! Oh, the delinque… wait, what?

Yes, they are on trial for drinking juice and were arrested because:

In accordance with the Federal Penal Code of the United Arab Emirates, a public intake of food and beverages during daytime hours of the month of Ramadan is forbidden by Article 313. The article stipulates the punishment in the form of either a monetary penalty – up to 2,000 dirhems ($555) – or even a term of up to one month in prison.

Okay, this is the last word on this, but it looks like commenter Jae was right. According to Steven Novella at the always excellent Rogues Gallery, Anwar Rashid had filed for bankruptcy. Looks like he couldn’t quite afford that mansion after all, so he defaulted on the loan and made up a story about ghosts.

It turns out that Anwar Rashid is in bankruptcy. The following is from public records posted on Richard Dawkins.net:

7 (17.09.2007) BANKRUPTCY NOTICE entered under section 86(2) of the

Land Registration Act 2002 in respect of a pending action, as the

title of the proprietor of the registered estate appears to be

affected by a petition in bankruptcy against Anwar Rashid

presented in the High Court (Court Reference Number 9623 of 2007 )

Incredible, the amount of bullshit that can spew from someone’s mouth when they are trying to get out of trouble. Considering the amount of play this story has gotten, the better financial decision may have been to start offering tours for $50 a pop.

We know that there isn’t supposed to be a religious test for political office, and the vast majority of the secular community suports that. Including me. However, there is another level to this that is more obvious this year than it has been in the past.

Our current president, may he fade from the public eye soon, started a war based on what he thought was god’s decree. This year, we have the democrats falling all over themselves to gain the christian vote, but the real shock to the non-theists came with McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Palin is a Pentecostal christian. When someone jokingly refers to people speaking in tongues and praying for the end of the world, it’s the Pentecostals that actually belive that shit. This is when I started thinking about the religious test for office in a different way.

Could you imagine Palin getting all riled up, for instance, in front of the UN?

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: Vice President Palin, you have requested to speak to the Assembly about peace in Israel. The Secretary General yields the floor.

No, let me say that this is never going to happen. I just wanted to lighten the mood before I talk about what really bothers me about Palin, or any people who share her weird religious beliefs, potentially running this country. This is the belief that we are in the end-times and the second coming of jesus is “nigh”. Worse, they believe this is a good thing and want it to happen in their lifetime.

This belief infects all of their thinking. Why bother dealing with global warming. We’ll be in heaven soon! Why try to end war in the middle east when it’s a sign of the end times? Why bother improving anything at all when the world’s time is so short? Jesus will sort it all out when he gets here again!

Having this kind of thinking in our highest office frightens the shit out of me. I wouldn’t want to see President Jim Jones and I don’t want to see Vice President Palin. Religion, when it affects secular values and how you will affect the world, must be a consideration when voting for a candidate. Until religion is something that is not a factor in politics, I’m afraid it very much is a test for office.